smear hagel and undermine ultimately president obama. "the new yorker" weighed in on this troubling development earlier and they wrote, "at its best reporting is like science. you form a hypothesis and you try to prove it. but more importantly, you shoot it full of holes to see if any of the wounds are fatal. this unfortunately is a lesson that a certain part of the conservative media doesn't seem to have learned yet." i'm joined tonight by the famous dan rather, anchor and managing editor of "dan rather reports" on axs tv. i'm honored. thank you for being here. >> thank you very much. it's good to be here. >> what are we seeing evolve in the information age in america when it comes to reporting and sourcing? >> well, good reporting and sourcing is in steep decline, and that leaves communications about american politics. keep in mind that we now have the new internet. together with traditional american journalism. it remains so susceptible to manipulation, deception, and distraction that it allows lies to get started and then spread like